'Entitled to state his own view': 'John Wick 4' star Donnie Yen slams Quentin Tarantino for 'cartoonish' depiction of Bruce Lee
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Donnie Yen has shared his views on Quentin Tarantino's controversial portrayal of Bruce Lee in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'. In the film, Tarantino has taken a fictionalized version of Lee played by Mike Moh, who gets offended when Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Both mocks him for claiming he could beat Muhammad Ali in a fight. The mockery leads to Lee challenging Cliff to a fight in front of a crowd. Following this, he is humiliated after Cliff beats him by throwing him into a car door.
The movie was released in 2019 and at the time, Shannon Lee, the daughter of martial art legend Bruce Lee, had criticized Tarantino for a disrespectful depiction of her father. She said, "I’m tired of White men in Hollywood mistaking his confidence, passion, and skill for hubris and therefore finding it necessary to marginalize him and his contributions," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Donnie Yen spoke about the controversy
Donnie Yen, who recently appeared in the box-office hit 'John Wick: Chapter 4', talked about the negative depictions of Asians and Asian culture in cinema. This led to a comment about Tarantino's portrayal of Lee in his movie. He shared his thoughts about the entire thing while stating that if Tarantino is entitled to his status, then he is entitled to have his own view on the matter. The actor said, "Everybody is entitled to their opinions. Quentin Tarantino is a very renowned filmmaker, and he’s entitled to his status – and I’m entitled to state my own view. Obviously, he was making fun of Bruce. It was cartoonish," according to Variety.
What did Tarantino say about the entire saga?
In 2022, Tarantino was on 'The Joe Rogan Experience', a video podcast where he spoke about the bad depiction of Bruce Lee and shared his views on the matter. When Rogen pointed out the obvious and stated, "a lot of people thought you made Bruce Lee into an a**hole." Tarantino shared his side. "I can understand his daughter having a problem with it, it’s her f**king father, I get that. But anybody else [can] go suck a d**k. If you look at it, it’s obvious Cliff tricked him, that’s how he was able to [beat him,] it’s explained a bit more in the book," Tarantino said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
